


favors

by cosmicocean



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, The Mandalorian (TV)
Genre: Adorable Baby Yoda (The Mandalorian TV), Gen, Podfic Available, but now i've posted it again, i deleted this fic briefly, poe finn and rey very genuinely do not have anything to do in this fic, they're really here because i needed narrators
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:08:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,858
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27281719
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosmicocean/pseuds/cosmicocean
Summary: “There’s no one else here,” Leia tells him. “No one waiting in the shadows. Just us four and the droid.”The man looks at BB-8 warily, and then back to Leia. “I don’t much care for droids,” he says, in a low rasping voice.“They’re a friend.” Leia leans on her cane. “Aren’t you going to invite us inside, Din?”The man stiffens. “You must be confused,” he says coolly. “My name is Ket Diric. This is my farm. Din Djarin died some years ago.”Leia looks vaguely amused and inclines her head. “My apologies.”Where Leia needs an idea of where to look, and seeks out an old acquaintance.
Relationships: Baby Yoda (The Mandalorian TV) & Din Djarin
Comments: 10
Kudos: 333





	favors

“How do you know he’ll help us?”

Leia leans back, clearly thinking it over, drumming her hand on her cane. She uses it more often than not these days. Poe tries not to worry about it too much. He knows that she’s getting older, that getting sucked out of a window into space will knock anyone back for a loop, but in his mind, she is the woman in all his mother’s stories, unbowed and unbroken.

She is still those things, he supposes, but it is still discomfiting to see her slowing down.

“He owes me a favor,” she says eventually. “I told him I would call it in one day. He knows it’s coming.” Her lips twitch. “His friend called in a favor to get me to give him this one. It’s a cycle, I suppose.”

Rey grins at her. “What did his friend have on you?”

“She was an Alderaanian.” Leia leans back. “We were willing to do an awful lot of favors for each other, in those days.”

They’re on a shuttle towards a planet called Shryi. It’s a planet full of farms and wetlands, Leia says, populated but out of the way. She knows the exact coordinates of the place they’re going.

“You said he’s been there for years,” Finn says. “How do you know that he’ll be able to help us?”

“He won’t know who we’re looking for. But he’ll know how he thinks. He knows their kind.”

“What does he do now?” Poe asks.

“Farm, I suppose. I don’t know. I found him the identities and the planet. It was up to him what he did with them.”

Leia insists they park the shuttle far away. When asked, she waves a hand and says dismissively “he may have anti-aircraft guns, I don’t know, I’m assuming he didn’t sell all his weapons when he moved”, which Poe doesn’t find extremely comforting, and from the looks on Finn and Rey’s faces, they don’t, either. Leia seems supremely unconcerned.

So it’s a walk, Leia leaning on her cane and shooting vaguely annoyed looks at the three of them whenever they offer her an arm, so they stop asking. Poe is very conscious of the blaster on his hip, and on his other hip, and in his boot. Screw him, he likes to be prepared. Finn’s got his own blasters, and Rey has her lightsaber and her blaster, but she also has her knife, because she’s apparently developed an affinity for them in the past several months. BB-8 rolls along Poe’s side, chirping questions.

“I don’t know, we’ll get there when we get there,” Poe tells them, for what feels like the fiftieth time, when they see a farm in the distance. They’ve passed several clusters of farms along the way, but this one is farther away than any of them. Not so far that the occupants couldn’t go into town if they wanted, but far enough away that you can only distantly see the town from the slight hill it rests on. Leia comes to an abrupt stop in the middle of the path, and everyone lurches with her. Poe looks around, but he can’t see anything. He glances at Finn and Rey, who shrug.

“Not very kind of you to level weapons at visitors,” Leia calls. For a moment, the scene is still, only a faint breeze ruffling the tall grass.

Then, from three little lumps in the ground, three turrets abruptly rise, little blasters pointed directly at them. Everyone immediately draws their weapons, but Leia waves at them to lower them as a man walks down the path from the farm, a little stone building with a roof that leans heavily over the sides of the walls.

He’s a little older than Leia, but not by much, hair a rich gray and a little damp. Evidently he was working in the fields when it was drizzling earlier on their walk here. He’s dressed simply in durable, lightweight clothes of pale gray. He’s holding a blaster in one hand and a large staff in another. There are multiple scars on his face, a notable one slashed across his left cheek. He says nothing, watching the four of them in silence.

“There’s no one else here,” Leia tells him. “No one waiting in the shadows. Just us four and the droid.”

The man looks at BB-8 warily, and then back to Leia. “I don’t much care for droids,” he says, in a low rasping voice.

“They’re a friend.” Leia leans on her cane. “Aren’t you going to invite us inside, Din?”

The man stiffens. “You must be confused,” he says coolly. “My name is Ket Diric. This is my farm. Din Djarin died some years ago.”

Leia looks vaguely amused and inclines her head. “My apologies.”

“The last thing we need is for First Order forces to bear down on us.” Ket’s voice is flat. “Which they will do, if they know you’re here.”

“Which they don’t.”

“Which you don’t know.” He hasn’t relinquished his hold on his blaster. “I’m not willing to risk them tracking you here. Go on your way.”

Leia sighs. “The day has come, Ket.”

Ket glares. “I’m not signing up for your war.”

“I’m not asking you to.”

There’s a rustling in the tall grass. Immediately, Finn, Rey, and Poe level their blasters on it. The turrets all focus on the three of them and Ket points his blaster at them.

“Shoot and I put all three of you in the ground,” he tells them.

A small figure bursts from the tall grass. It’s a little green creature with big ears and large brown eyes in clothes the same color as Ket’s, albeit more robelike than his. He jumps to catch the tiny ketterling lizard who launches into the sky, wings emerging as it flies into the sky away from the creature. The creature lands right on his face with a discontented noise. He rights himself, looking annoyed.

“We’ve talked about this,” Ket says, not taking his eye or his blaster off the three of them. “You can’t keep trying to eat them.”

The creature huffs. He looks over at them, eyes squinting a little.

“ _Buir?_ ” he asks.

“You tell me, kid.”

The creature squints further. Rey straightens a little, her blaster lowering as they stare at each other.

“Rey?” Finn asks.

The creature looks at Ket. “ _Duumyc._ ”

“ _Ad’ika_ -“

“ _Duumyc,_ ” the kid says again, more insistently this time. “Waffles.”

Ket’s lips twitch. “Waffles, huh?”

“No lizard.” The kid’s voice rises a little. “Waffles.”

“You drive a hard bargain.” Ket lowers the blaster. The turrets all vanish back into the ground. “You may enter.”

“Thank you.”

Ket turns and heads into the farm. The creature follows, speedy on his little legs.

“Leia,” Rey says in a hushed tone. “That child-“

“I know.” Leia calmly strides ahead on the path, cane clunking confidently along. “I feel it, too.”

The farm is small. The dining room and the kitchen are one big open space, and the four of them sit at the table. The kid raises his arms and gestures. Ket picks him up and sets him on a chair before he heads to the kitchen side of the room.

“It’s a nice place,” Leia says.

“You should know.”

“You have a lot of chairs for someone so irritable,” Poe observes. It’s hard to envision the man having a multitude of acquaintances.

“I have friends from Sorgan and Alderaan who visit.” Ket pulls a waffle maker down from a cabinet. “What do you want, Leia?”

“I’m cashing in my chip.”

“I gathered.” He pulls down some bowls. “What do you want?”

“We’re looking for a woman named Kylj Bygra.” Leia settles into her chair a little. “She’s a Mandalorian. She has information that could help the Resistance.”

Ket slams the bowl down, making the kid jump and stare at him reproachfully. “Absolutely not.”

“Ket-“

“Absolutely _not._ ” He whips around, looking furious. “You did what you did for me and I appreciate it, but I won’t sell out one of my own.”

“Wait, _you_ were a Mandalorian?” Rey asks.

“Don’t you guys always wear a helmet?” Finn asks.

“You do until you don’t. Once you take it off, it can’t be put back on. At the end of the day, I had to make a choice about what was safest for-“ he cuts himself off. “I won’t do it.”

Leia sighs.

“Bygra got in the First Order’s good graces by telling them the location of several foundling houses,” she tells him. “For their stormtrooper program.”

Something flits across Ket’s face too quickly for Poe to catch before it turns to stone. The kid frowns and reaches out to catch his sleeve, tugging on it. Ket sits down heavily next to his chair, and the kid scuttles to lean against him a little.

“I wouldn’t ask if it was someone just minding their own business,” Leia tells him. “And I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.”

Silence falls over the home. Ket looks out the window.

“Check under the Guild haunts,” he says eventually. “Mandalorians are fond of tunnels. Someone there will have seen her.”

Leia taps her cane on the ground. “Thank you.”

Ket grunts. “Did anyone see you come up?”

“They saw us pass through town. But nobody knows where I was going.”

“Good.”

Leia leans over and pulls something from her cloak. To Poe’s surprise, it’s a child’s toy, a small disc with buttons and lights. The kid’s face lights up when she holds it out to him, and he eagerly takes it.

“ _Ad’ika_ ,” Ket remonstrates.

“Thank,” the child says.

“You’re welcome.” Leia looks up at him. “What is his name?”

“Djir.”

“You’re welcome, Djir.” Leia looks up at him. “He’s gotten bigger.”

“Not by much.”

“He only spoke two words when you came to me.” Leia smiles. “ _Buir_ and Da.”

Ket looks a little proud. “I remember.”

Leia stands. “We won’t trouble you any longer.”

Ket doesn’t offer for them to stay longer. Poe doesn’t mind. If they have a lead on Bygra, he’d rather get going sooner rather than later. Rey kneels in front of the chair in front of Djir, who turns his wide eyes on her.

“It was a pleasure to meet you,” she tells him.

He beams at her, but says nothing. Rey stands and rejoins them in the doorway.

“Leia,” Ket calls before they leave.

She turns.

Ket looks almost regretful. “I was sorry to hear about your boy,” he tells her.

Leia’s face does something complicated before she smiles sadly and gives him a nod.

“I’m glad to see yours is doing so well,” she says. “You made the right call.”

“Yeah.” Ket stands. Djir doesn’t look at him, thoroughly preoccupied with his new toy. “I know.”

Leia is still smiling in the shuttle as they take off.

“Who _were_ they?” Finn asks eventually.

“I didn’t know them when I brought them their new identities.” Leia leans back against the shuttle. “But they appear to be a farmer and his son. It’s good he gave us that lead. Rey, radio Tico and let her know.”

**Author's Note:**

> I deleted this fic previously but now I've put it back up! That's why you guys may recognize it from before.
> 
> "Buir" means father, but because Baby Yoda's vocabulary is still so limited, it really means "who are they? what's going on?" with them in this context, which Din is accustomed to enough that he knows what it means in this context. 
> 
> Here's the Mando'a translations:
> 
> -Ad'ika: little one, son  
> -Buir: father  
> -Duumyc: allowed

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